Hacker Ethic

Raymond also notes that the success of Linux coincided with the wide availability of the World Wide Web. The value of community is still in high practice and use today.

[edit]Levy's "true hackers"

Levy identifies several "true hackers" who significantly influenced the hacker ethic. Some well-known "true hackers" include:

• 
  
• John McCarthy—The founder of the Artificial Intelligence lab at MIT.
  
• Bill Gosper—A mathematician and hacker.
  
• Richard Greenblatt
  
• Richard Stallman—A programmer and political activist who is well-known for GNU, Emacs and the Free Software Movement.
  

Levy also identified the "hardware hackers" (the "second generation", mostly centered in Silicon Valley) and the "game hackers" (or the "third generation"). All three generations of hackers, according to Levy, embodied the principles of the hacker ethic.

Some Levy's "second-generation" hackers include:

• 
  
• Steve Wozniak—One of two Steves that founded Apple, Inc.
  
• Bob Marsh—A designer of the Sol-20 computer.
  
• Steve Dompier—A homebrew member and hacker worked with the early Altair.
  
• Fred Moore—An activist and founder of the Homebrew Computer Club.
  
• Lee Felsenstein—A hardware hacker and co-founder of Community Memory and Homebrew. A designer of the Sol-20 computer.
  

Levy's "third generation" practitioners of hacker ethic include:

• 
  
• John Harris—One of the first programmers hired at On-Line Systems (later became Sierra Entertainment).
  
• Ken Williams—Along with wife Roberta, founded On-Line Systems after working at IBM.
  

[edit]Comparision of hacker ethic and cracker ethic

Steven Mizrach, who identifies himself with CyberAnthropologist studies,[21] compared Levy's "old hacker ethic" with the "new hacker ethic" prevalent in thecomputer security hacking community. In his essay titled "Is there Hacker Ethic for 90s Hackers?" he makes the controversial claim that the "New Hacker Ethic" has continuously evolved out of the older one, though having undergone a radical shift. Still, while the nature of hacker activity has evolved due to the availability of new technologies (for example, the mainstreaming of the personal computer or the social connectivity of the internet), parts of the hacker ethics—particularly those of access, sharing, and community—remain the same.

[edit]Other descriptions of hacker ethic

Later in 2001, Finnish philosopher Pekka Himanen promoted the hacker ethic in opposition to the Protestant work ethic. In Himanen's opinion the hacker ethic is more closely related to the virtue ethics found in the writings of Plato and of Aristotle.

For Himanen (who wrote The Hacker Ethic), Linus Torvalds (prologue), and Manuel Castells (epilogue), the hacker ethic centers around passion, hard work, creativity and joy in creating software. Both Himanen and Torvalds were inspired by the Sampo Finnish mythology. The Sampo, described in the Kalevala, was a magical artifact constructed by Ilmarinen, the blacksmith god, that brought good fortune to its holder; nobody knows exactly what it was supposed to be. The Sampo has been interpreted in many ways: a world pillar or world tree, a compass or astrolabe, a chest containing a treasure, a Byzantine coin die, a decorated Vendel period shield, a Christian relic, etc. In the Kalevala, compiler Lönnrot interpreted it to be a quern or mill of some sort that made flour, salt, and gold out of thin air.[citation needed]

[edit]References

1. 
   
2. ^ Levy, S 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 9
   
3. ^ Levy, S 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 36
   
4. ^ Levy, S 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 26
   
5. ^ Levy, S: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, page ix. Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984.
   
6. ^ Levy, S: Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, pages 26–36. Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984.
   
7. ^ Levy,Steven(1984)Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York, pp 3-36
   
8. ^ Levy, S. 1984. Hackers:Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 27
   
9. ^ a b Levy, S. 1984. Hackers:Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 28
   
10. ^ Levy, S. (1984) Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York, pp 3–36
    
11. ^ For further discussion on liberalism and hacking including equal opportunity see Coleman and Golub's 'Hacker practice'[1] Moral genres and the cultural articulation of liberalism.
    
12. ^ Levy, S. 1984. Hackers:Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 31
    
13. ^ Levy, S 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 30–31
    
14. ^ a b Levy,Steven(1984)Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York, pp 3–36
    
15. ^ Levy, S. 1984. Hackers:Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 33
    
16. ^ Levy, S. 1984. Hackers:Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 36
    
17. ^ Charles Leadbetter (2008). We-Think. Profile Books.
    
18. ^ Fiona Macdonald (12 March 2008). Get a fair share of creativity. Metro
    
19. ^ Levy, S: "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", pages 27–36. Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984.
    
20. ^ Levy, S 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Anchor Press/Doubleday, New York. pg 27
    
21. ^ Raymond, E. The Cathedral and the Bazaar
    
22. ^ CyberAnthropology main page by Steven Mizrach
    

• 
  
• Himanen, Pekka. 2001. The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50566-0
  
• Levy, Steven. 2001. (1984). "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution." Updated edition. Penguin. ISBN 0141000511
  

[edit]External links

• 
  
• Enid Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist at NYU, works on hackers and has written extensively on the hacker ethic and culture [2] [3]
  
• Tom Chance's essay on The Hacker Ethic and Meaningful Work
  
• Hacker ethic from the Jargon file
  
• Directory of free software
  
• ITERATIVE DISCOURSE AND THE FORMATION OF NEW SUBCULTURES by Steve Mizrach describes the hacker terminology, including the term cracker.
  
• Richard Stallman's Personal Website
  
• Is there a Hacker Ethic for 90s Hackers? by Steven Mizrach
  
• The Hacker's Ethics by the Cyberpunk Project